1. Technical Field
This application relates to a beverage bottling or container filling plant having a beverage bottle or container handling machine and a method of operation thereof.
2. Background Information
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine, which is often a rotary filling machine, with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material.
Some beverage bottling plants may possibly comprise filling arrangements that receive a liquid beverage material from a toroidal or annular vessel, in which a supply of liquid beverage material is stored under pressure by a gas. The toroidal vessel may also be connected to at least one external reservoir or supply of liquid beverage material by a conduit or supply line. In some circumstances it may even be possible that a beverage bottling plant has two external supply reservoirs, each of which may be configured to store either the same liquid beverage product or different products. These reservoirs could possibly be connected to the toroidal or annular vessel by corresponding supply lines, conduits, or other arrangements. It is also possible that the external supply reservoirs could be in the form of simple storage tanks, or in the form of liquid beverage product mixers.
A wide variety of types of filling elements are used in filling machines in beverage bottling or container filling plants for dispensing a liquid product into bottles, cans or similar containers, including but not limited to filling processes that are carried out under counterpressure for the bottling of carbonated beverages. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine.
After a filling process has been completed, the filled beverage bottles are transported or conveyed to a closing machine, which is often a rotary closing machine. A revolving or rotary machine comprises a rotor, which revolves around a central, vertical machine axis. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. A transporting or conveying arrangement can utilize transport star wheels as well as linear conveyors. A closing machine closes bottles by applying a closure, such as a screw-top cap or a bottle cork, to a corresponding bottle mouth. Closed bottles are then usually conveyed to an information adding arrangement, wherein information, such as a product name or a manufacturer's information or logo, is applied to a bottle. A closing station and information adding arrangement may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement. Bottles are then sorted and packaged for shipment out of the plant.
Many beverage bottling plants may also possibly comprise a rinsing arrangement or rinsing station to which new, non-return and/or even return bottles are fed, prior to being filled, by a conveyer arrangement, which can be a linear conveyor or a combination of a linear conveyor and a starwheel. Downstream of the rinsing arrangement or rinsing station, in the direction of travel, rinsed bottles are then transported to the beverage filling machine by a second conveyer arrangement that is formed, for example, by one or more starwheels that introduce bottles into the beverage filling machine.
It is a further possibility that a beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can be controlled by a central control arrangement, which could be, for example, a computerized control system that monitors and controls the operation of the various stations and mechanisms of the beverage bottling plant.
Some beverage bottling plants also have a bottle or container manufacturing arrangement or machine or system in which the bottles or containers are manufactured or formed in the plant prior to filling and/or cleaning or rinsing. Stretch blow molding machines for the manufacture of bottles or similar hollow bodies using preforms made of a thermoplastic plastic material such as PET, for example, by heating and subsequent stretch blowing (blow molding) of the respective preforms are known in the beverage bottling industry. Stretch blow molding machines of this type essentially comprise a heating station in which the preforms are heated by a controlled temperature, and of a downstream blowing station in which the stretch blow molding takes place at a high rate or production and which, for this purpose, generally comprises a rotor or blow molding unit with a plurality of blow molds that is driven in rotation around a vertical machine axis. Both process steps, namely the preheating of the preforms and the downstream stretch blow molding are coupled directly to each other. Generally, the heat output and delivery capacity of the heating station are adapted to the output of the blow molding station.
In practice, downstream of the stretch blow molding machine is an additional part of a total plant, i.e. for example downstream of a stretch blow molding machine for the manufacture of bottles is a filling machine, which can then be directly interlocked with the stretch blow molding machine, for example. One disadvantage associated with some existing practices, especially relating to the stretch blow molding machines for the manufacture of bottles, is that in the event of a stoppage or problem in the downstream portion of the overall plant or in the machine immediately downstream, the stretch blow molding machine must continue to run until the heating station and a transport element that moves the preforms through the heating station and also the blow molds of the blow molding station are completely emptied. The number of preforms and bottles affected by this disadvantage is equal to the number of preforms and bottles that are normally being processed in two minutes of normal operation of a stretch blow molding machine. The bottles that are produced during this idling must be transferred outward and discarded if such bottles cannot be reused for lack of a suitable sorting system. A buffer storage of the bottles that are produced during the idling of the stretch blow molding machine in separate buffer storage systems is not possible because the bottles molded by stretch blow molding are extremely sensitive, and generally can be easily damaged and/or deformed, which means that they are no longer suitable for reuse.
There can be many different problems in a part of the overall plant downstream of the stretch blow molding machine or in another machine located downstream, and can be caused, for example, by a lack of operating media, a lack of product to be bottled in a downstream filling machine, backups in connected transport systems, mechanical or electrical faults in complex control systems etc. The idling of either the heating station or the stretch blow molding station or of both stations that is necessary in some cases during a shutdown or fault can result in significant material costs, for example, which on high capacity machines or plants in continuous operation can add up to approximately a six-figure amount.